The Scene. The Prime Minister was full of indignation. All of it righteous in quality.

He chopped and swiped with his hand. He pumped his fist and jabbed his finger. He raised his voice and he scolded and he challenged and he dismissed. How dare the NDP, they who once propagated a phone campaign that directed disenchanted voters to call Lise St. Denis’s office, accuse him of wrongdoing. Who were they to stand here and challenge him? And with what evidence exactly? And the Liberals, they having recently employed someone who posted to Twitter excerpts of the Public Safety Minister’s divorce proceedings—perhaps they might just go ahead and apologize to the government for suggesting anything untoward.

It was a fine show. All the more so when delivered by the leader of a party that pleaded guilty three-and-a-half months ago to violating the Elections Act.

Perhaps buoyed by Mr. Harper’s bullishness, Pierre Poilievre decided to get cheeky. Noting that the NDP’s Alexandre Boulerice had asked about automated calls, Mr. Poilievre suggested that if the member had evidence he could press 1. If he wished to apologize, he could press 2. And if he had the wrong number, he could hang up and try his call again.

The Conservatives were gleeful about this, many of them leaping up to applaud, several of them grinning as if they’d just been presented with a new bike for Christmas.

Alas, it was then that the moment shifted.

“Mr. Speaker,” Charlie Angus sighed with the opposition’s next opportunity, “there we have a party that thinks that electoral fraud is a joke.”

The Conservatives howled.

“Mr. Speaker, we can see their attitude,” Mr. Angus continued, “their contempt for the Canadian people.”

The Conservatives had been making grand gestures of calling for the opposition parties to produce evidence. Mr. Angus was now ready to oblige.

“Let us talk about evidence that we have already brought forward to Elections Canada. We will show them ours if they will show us theirs,” he chided the government. “780-665-2272 is the number that called into Edmonton East, people pretending to be from Elections Canada and who gave misleading messages and pro-Conservative messages. That is a crime. That is electoral fraud. Do the Conservatives not want to know who did it? We brought forward our evidence. Who over there knows who was involved in this electoral fraud in Edmonton East?”

The closest the Conservatives could come to explaining that was this, committed to the record by Dean Del Mastro: “Mr. Speaker, during the recent election, Elections Canada has confirmed that at least 127 polling stations were changed, affecting as many as 1,000 polls.”

This perhaps explains something, but it does not seem to explain whatever happened in Edmonton East—that riding not appearing on Elections Canada’s list of ridings where changes in polling stations took place.

David Christopherson rose to report on recent happenings at the Procedure and House Affairs committee. “Mr. Speaker, the procedure and House Affairs committee just finished reviewing the Chief Electoral Officer’s recommendations from the 2008 election,” he explained. “He asked that Elections Canada be given the power to demand any documentation from any political party he deemed necessary to verify their compliance with the law. We agreed. The Conservatives did not. How can Conservatives claim they want specific evidence brought forward when it suits them, then vote against giving the Chief Electoral Officer the very power he needs to demand specific evidence be brought forward?”

Mr. Del Mastro stood and offered that “of course Elections Canada has the full investigative ability and authority to look into these or other matters” and that the opposition should turn over its evidence.

Mr. Christopherson stood and suggested that this did not actually answer his question.

A short while later, the Speaker called on Irwin Cotler. “Mr. Speaker, I represent the riding of Mount Royal that was targeted with false and misleading ten percenters before the election that the Speaker characterized as a breach of privilege. It was targeted again with these flyers along with false and misleading calls during the election. It was targeted with calls and misleading calls about my impending resignation after the election which was characterized as a reprehensible act,” Mr. Cotler recounted. “This is not about the absence of evidence, but about the absence of responsibility. Will the government do the honourable and responsible thing and apologize for this pattern of reprehensible acts in my riding and against the integrity of the House?”

Mr. Del Mastro stood and begged for everyone’s cognitive dissonance. “Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party of Canada does not place intentionally misleading calls to voters,” he ventured. “We simply do not.”

Next up Frank Valeriote, who spoke of frustration and confusion in his riding of Guelph. Mr. Del Mastro stood and denied it was anything to do with his side. “Mr. Speaker,” he declared, “the Conservative Party of Canada denies any involvement in Guelph whatsoever with the matter that the member spoke of.”

But now Bob Rae was getting up for a rare appearance this late in the hour. “Mr. Speaker, I have just learned that a court document has been produced from the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections saying that there were 31 phone calls between the Conservative campaign in Guelph and RackNine and that there were 40 calls between Conservative operatives in Ottawa and RackNine,” he reported. “Can the government explain that information in conjunction with the statement that was just made by the parliamentary secretary?”

Mr. Del Mastro stood, but he was perhaps not quite ready for this development. “With respect to the question the member has just asked, he knows he is not being transparent in his question. He is trying to mix apples and oranges here,” Mr. Del Mastro managed, perhaps reasonably. “Were there calls between RackNine and members? Sure, there may have been, but the member knows full well that the matter with Guelph is entirely separate. The Conservative Party is co-operating with Elections Canada in that matter and will continue to do so.”

The Prime Minister managed to clap when Mr. Del Mastro was done, but otherwise he kept his head down, busying himself with his paperwork.

The Commons: The Prime Minister tries to bluster it all away

I did not have the privilege to sit in the gallery like our host, I only saw a few clips of Question Period, but might I ask him –Are you sure it was Harper and Del Mastro and Poilievre that were yelling. from what I saw they appeared to be relatively calm, though their words were often drowned out by the opposition.

Are you sure that Martin and Rae and Valeriote, or Christopherson or Angus did not yell out their accusations?

If our host would like more decorum in the House then he will have to do a better job of identifying the problem areas.

Well, apparently our blogging host must think I have at least one clue.
After my first comment he changed the headline of the piece and inserted ” bluster” where earlier he had the word “yell”.
Maybe he thinks you can bluster after others yell.

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party of Canada does not place intentionally misleading calls to voters, said Del Mastro in response to Cotler. Did they not just recently admit to doing exactly that in Mr. Cotler’s riding?

” The “tough on crime” party wouldn’t know crime if it bit them in the a** — and now apparently it has!!! ” And guess what? You’re right. This conjob-party is too deaf, dumb, and blind to see it or acknowledge it.

“The Prime Minister tries to yell it all away… He chopped and swiped with his hand. He pumped his fist and jabbed his finger. He raised his voice and he scolded and he challenged and he dismissed. ”

Did he really? Anyone have video evidence of this? Harper is notoriously cool, calm, and collected in the house.

Looking at the comments, it appears I’m not the only one who doubts Mr. Wherry’s latest tale of fiction.

Actually, I’m calling BS on this, sight unseen, which is perfectly reasonable given Wherry’s extreme partisanship and Harper’s exceedingly well documented record of civility and calm and coolness in the house. I challenge Wherry or anyone else to post a link where the PM yells, fist pumps, finger jabs, raises his voice, and challenged and dismissed. Prove it, and no RickRolling.

I note that the headline to this article, which I have now saved and screenshotted, has been changed, without noting so, from “The Prime Minister tries to yell it all away” to “The Prime Minister tries to bluster it all away” so we already have one admission of a misleading article.

I’ve reviewed 4 of Harper’s 6 answers – on my own valuable time – so far and so far every single allegation Aaron made is false.

Start updating your resume, Aaron, because when I’m done with you you’re going to need it.

OK, I just reviewed all 6 questions answered by Harper. For the record:

He neither chopped nor swiped with his hand.

Not once did he punp his fist.

Not once did he jab his finger.

Not once did he raise his voice, other than on one occassion out of 6, barely, to speak above the braying pack of hyenas.

Not once did he yell, as was stated in the original and now deleted without explanation headline of this article.

He did scold, as he should, the NDP’s own robocalling, he did challenge, as he should, the NDP to produce evidence, and he did dismiss, as he should, when accused of electoral fraud without proof thereof.

I’ll tell you what electoral fraud is: this blog post by Aaron Wherry. Harper is, to anyone who has spent 5 minutes watching him in the house, soft spoken and very calm at virtually all times, and today was no exception. Thanks to outright liars like Aaron Wherry, uneducated people who don’t know any better think he is a mouth frothing monster.

I’ll be taking this up directly with Kenneth Whyte. Best of luck on the pogey line, Aaron, because sorry isn’t going to cut it.

First, the headline. I changed that because upon further consideration, while the Prime Minister raised his voice above his typical volume, I wasn’t sure that constituted a “yell.”

As to the Prime Minister’s hand gestures, I’ve reviewed the notes I took this afternoon and they include all of the descriptions I’ve made here. I’ve also reviewed the video of QP and most of the gestures described here are plainly visible (in one case, Mr. Harper’s right hand strays off screen).

I don’t care what your notes say, I have the video evidence, not once did he jab his finger, not once did he chop, not once did he pump his fist, and he was just about the only person in QP *not* to yell today, and I can prove that.I note that you closed, and deleted, comments on the ‘What Crisis?’ article of Jan 31, where I busted you lying too. It’s the only 4 week old article on your entire website in which the comments are closed and deleted, a tacit admission that you lied there too. But please, keep lying Aaron, it makes my new hobby – disemploying leftist journalists – all the easier.

Just had a look at some old “Beyond the Commons” pieces and every single one I looked at through the first two weeks of August had the comments closed and removed.
Looks like I don’t have to bother watching CPAC to safely discount whatever lyin’ Terence Trent has to say.

Lenny on February 29, 2012 at 12:28 am

”
every single one I looked at through the first two weeks of August ”

It’s February. 2012. We’re in Canada, on the planet Earth.

Terence Trent Yada Yada on February 29, 2012 at 12:58 am

D’oh! Indeed, that should have read February.

Lenny on February 29, 2012 at 11:10 am

Don’t just get him fired, get his cable cut off too. Have his blackberry de-activated and his insurance cancelled. Destroy his credit rating and have Revenue Canada audit his tax returns for the last seven years. Repossess his car and get his bank to increase his mortgage rate. Get his phone number taken off the do not call list and give it to Pierre Poutin for good measure. TP his house and launch a frivolous lawsuit for twisting your ankle on his front lawn. Have 20 pizzas delivered to his house, make sure they are cold when they get there.

Don’t take this shit lying down …

lgarvin on February 29, 2012 at 7:25 am

Wow, this is the saddest attempt at changing the subject I have seen in a while.

Fine. You win. You spoiled the Konspiracy’s dastardly attempt to bring down the government with a blog post. Good job. I hope you get a bonus for it.

Al O'Wishes on February 29, 2012 at 8:40 am

“Mr. Whyte, my name is Terence Trent Yada Yada, and I have some highly disturbing news to report about one of your staffers, but first, I’d like to make sure you’re sitting down, sir…”

craigola13 on February 29, 2012 at 11:55 am

Oh, and for wasting my time fact checking you today, you owe me a steak the size of a toilet seat at Hy’s the next time I’m in Ottawa, and a *proper* bottle of red.

This is yet another attempt to misdirect the issue and as you can see it’s not working.

Harper is robotic in his carefully scripted deceptions and it wouldn’t surprise me if he is incapable of showing emotion. That doesn’t change the fact that there were very serious crimes committed in the last election being investigated in order to find out who did them and instead of launching an proper inquiry Harper is arrogantly stonewalling. It is obvious why and Canadians are rightly outraged and suspicious of him in light of his record of fraud, lies, and regressive legislation. Obviously he needs to be removed from power, regardless of whether every word written in an article about his attempts to hide behind a mask are completely descriptively accurate.

You are probably one of Harper’s 1500 paid bloggers whose job it is to find anything you can to cloud discussion and as you can see by the comments and popularity of the anti Harper ones in news blogs right across the country, you’re losing.

Making the twitter attack on Toews was wrong and vindictive.However, stealing the right to vote from thousands of Canadians is an attack on our system of government and the democratic principles of Canada. I sure hope that Elections Canada and the investigative media get down to the facts of what happened.

Doesn’t matter. If the attempt to suppress votes was made, that’s all that’s needed to prove guilt. And complete and utter disrespect for our democratic system. I’m with those who have gone so far as to call it treason.

Who told you the CPC stole the right to vote from thousands of Canadians? The media? They lie, all day, every day, as I have proved in the above comment. Be smarter: question everything the media says instead of getting duped like a fool.

Being smug, laughing at the Opposition and being dismissive, haven’t worked, Mr. Harper. Voter suppression is an assault on Canada’s democracy and you and your party need to realize that. Try coming clean and release your Party’s documents to Elections Canada if you’re serious about getting to the bottom of it.

He didn’t yell, once. He was one of the only speakers in QP to *not* yell. The headline to the article was changed from “tries to yell it away” to “tries to bluster it away”, a tacit admission that it was a lie. Note the url to this page is still …the-commons-the-prime-minister-tries-to-yell-it-all-away/.

Harper stands accused of complicity of criminal conduct, without a shred of evidence that he or anyone around him was involved. And the taunting accusers are giddy at his frustration (present company, including the blog post author, included).

The partisan driven conduct of the the left leaning media is shameful. At lease they’re leading with their chin, at the outset declaring actual guilt irrelevant given that it is something that the conservatives ”would do” in any event.

Once again, the hyperpartisans will misjudge Canadians in assuming they will forego fairmindedness and share in their irrational hatred of Harper.

I never did and never will accept the idea that the Canadian education system has been so dismantled that we have an electorate stupid enough to actually elect Harper. He stole this election as much as Bush stole his. And he did it exactly the same way: lies, election fraud, bullying, and disinformation.

Show me what’s in Harper’s blind trust, and I’ll show you who he really is.

You have too much faith in the Canadian people. Go read the toilet that is the Sun chain (especially the comments section) and the National Post (same) and you’ll find that there are a large number of people onside with the race-baiting, poor-bashing, fear-mongering and ends-justify-the-means attitude that seem to emanate daily from the governing side of the bench. This country and it’s people are turning into a disgusting place. Maybe it always was disgusting, and I just never noticed, because I never read comment boards on conservative websites.

The Conservative apologist here remind me of the tobacco companies that argued that there is no cause and effect relationship between smoking and cancer. While I do believe that ultimately any conclusion to this needs to be based on evidence…really…who would be able manage this huge scandal other than someone high up in the party. In this case even if Harper didn’t know…he’s still very much responsible.

There was no huge scandal. That was a fabrication by the media colluding with the socialist parties. They have no proof other than self serving and unverifiable claims by partisan election workers butthurt that they got smoked last election.

“We just want to make sure that both the media and the voters know
that there have not been any changes in the voting [locations] … and
that the documents they receive from Elections Canada and the Elections Canada website is the accurate information they should trust in order to vote tomorrow,” Elections Canada Spokeswoman FrancineBastien stated May 1, 2011.

“I don’t know the details exactly but I understand they were getting
information to the effect that they should vote in different locations,
sometimes being referred to locations that were an hour away from their
residence.”

“An MP has a choice.
He or she sits at a fork in the road.
One road is downhill, smooth sailing and leads to a cabinet or shadow
cabinet post. You just have to keep your
mouth shut, do as you’re told, and be rabidly partisan and don’t question what
you’re given.

The other road is uphill, rocky, full of potholes and
doesn’t lead to any personal advantage.”

Two points; First, unless one knows who committed the act, it would be damned hard to admit to it – so Wherry is actually acusing the PM and the Party of not only being responsible for everything that some twit might have done in their name (or to prevent the overthrow of the government by a Coalition of losers) but for actively supressing it – a bit of a dangerous gambit for a professional scribe.

Secondly, The Liberals didnt’ lose the May 2nd election – they were routed into oblivion. In case one forgets, the narative ever since is if they are dead, not successful. So even if Harper gave every seat that had irregularities (Elections Canada says there was one – Guelf (sp?) despite the 30-40 hysteria. They would still be dead last.

Well, Harper has increaed his vote in every election – btw he now has a majority. I note you didn’t take issue with my facts – typical Lefty reaction – no facts, raise your voice and make ever dumber accusations. You’re right on the spelling – I left Ontario in ’74 and only go back for (short) visits. On most msg boards it’s considered the act of the insecure or self important to worry about it. And finally, while the guys (or girls) organizational skill may be good, the lack of integrity means he/she thinks like a Liberal – therefore we shouldn’t keep him.

It may well be that someone did something wrong. Look at the apology Rae just made on his staffer. But are your screaming for Rae’s blood? Well, no, that would be obtuse wouldn’t it? I mean how could a Party leader know virtually everything done in his name just because the dummy thought he was helping the cause. While you may fit in well in Syria right now, the fact is that in this country, we try and assign fault to those how actually did something. Btw, Pat Martin has just been sued for Libel – apparently he decided to run off at the mouth like a soup sandwich – certainly no surprise there? – and the company took offence. So if we are going to hang Harper for something that, at present, there isn’t the slightest proof he had anything to do with, then lets make it a party – we can hang Rae alongside him and Martin with the other two. Is that what “Enquiring” Canadians are after?

DougM on March 1, 2012 at 8:08 pm

Okay, so Aaron got caught lying… big deal… Aaron lies all the time… can we please get back to the feeding frenzy of smearing the elected Conservative Government with baseless accusations and deceit… Focus people… Aaron may have lied, yes, but lets not forget that thats what Aaron gets paid to do… Aaron didn’t start this smear campaign against the Government, he’s just doing his job as a “Liberal” activist, and pretend journalist to pile on… and whats so wrong about that? Aaron is just trying to point out the audacity of a PM defending himself against a baseless, sleazy, trumped up smear campaign, and that rightfully makes Aaron mad. The PM defending himself and his elected Government against this latest smear campaign doesn’t help the media / opposition narrative, and Aaron is just trying his best to help that narrative continue. Thats Aarons job.. duh. Good work Aaron… see you at the next “Liberal” fundraiser.

I’m not sure if Aaron and my other fellow “Liberals” have actually read the EC report regarding the last election… well Aaron probably has, and thankfully ignored… way to go Aaron… Anyhoo… I was hoping some of my fellow adscammers could help me out on this one, it doesn’t help our narrative guys… EC report states that ” There was no conduct reported that would bring into question the integrity of the election result over all, or the result in a particular riding. Although misconduct was reported in several ridings, there is no complaint that it affected the final result. There is some speculation in the MEDIA that the dirty tricks may have affected the result in some close ridings”. Now this report doesn’t say anything about the Cons, and that the election result wasn’t affected, which sucks arse for us… What should we do to keep our smear campaign against the Cons going guys? Should we just ignore the facts and keep making accusations without proof, or should we make up more unfounded accusations, or should we just make up a whole new smear? Aaron, you’re probably the best person to ask, you’re so good at being obtuse… how can we keep ignoring the facts and continue our baseless smear campaign… there has to be a way, and the sooner the better… or at least until it’s found out that this whole smear was manufactured by us “Liberals” at that point we can just pretend it didn’t happen. I just hope the Cons have a better understanding of the depths of sleaze we “Liberals, our media and NDP’ers are willing to go to… and maybe they’ll give us back our access to the per vote subsidy… that taxpayer money is our life blood and rightfully ours to take!

Notice: Your email may not yet have been verified. Please check your email, click the link to verify your address, and then submit your comment. If you can't find this email, access your profile editor to re-send the confirmation email. You must have a verified email to submit a comment. Once you have done so, check again.

Sign In / Sign Up

With your existing account from

With an email account

Commenters who signed up before June 26th, 2014 will have to reregister on our new, social-friendly login system. The good news? The process should only take a few minutes, and you're welcome to use the same email address.

Almost Done!

Please confirm the information below before signing up.

{* #socialRegistrationForm *}
{* socialRegistration_firstName *}
{* socialRegistration_lastName *}
{* socialRegistration_emailAddress *}
{* socialRegistration_displayName *}
By clicking "Create Account", I confirm that I have read and understood each of the website terms of service and privacy policy and that I agree to be bound by them.